Category: Business Advice

Entrepreneurship is an appealing endeavor. It is a shift away from the downside of employment and presents an excellent opportunity to earn more, thereby improving your quality of life. However, starting a business is not an activity that can be taken lightly as it demands self-discipline, dedication and a desire to succeed.
Business start up options
The Franchise Option
There are several business options that you can consider. One approach can be purchasing a franchise. Franchises are significantly becoming one of the most common types of start-ups that people decide to establish.

In our previous post we looked at the advantages of buying a franchise business.
However, while there are so many advantages of owning a franchise, the darker side of buying a franchise business can not be ignored.
Here are some of the disadvantages of buying a franchise:
1. Massive investment: Buying a franchise mean an enormous amount of investment regarding franchise fee, infrastructure, planning, and operations. However, in the case of independent business, a franchise can plan his business as per his budget.

Franchising has evolved over the years with its growing popularity. People prefer buying a franchise as compared to starting an independent business because of its numerous benefits to the franchisee.
Owning a franchise gives an aspiring entrepreneur an opportunity to get associated with a renowned and fruitful business. However, being associated with a successful brand means sharing entire responsibility for the brand value. After owning a franchise, it becomes franchisee's responsibility to enhance, protect and promote the brand.

For most people, the idea of bankruptcy is a daunting one. Many people assume that the bankruptcy process comes with only negative connotations and consequences. In fact, the opposite is true. In many situations, people are finding that filing for bankruptcy can be more beneficial than they ever thought possible.
Protection
When you file for bankruptcy, the first thing that is granted by the court is an automatic stay order. This order grants you immediate protection from creditors and debt collection efforts.

If you own a small business you will know it is not easy. Without any question, there are things that will keep you up at night. It comes with the territory.
SmartCompany recently published an article titled ‘We asked SMEs what keeps them up at night: Here’s the most common response.'
You can read the full article here:
Excerpts from the article:
“While almost a fifth are regularly thinking about cashflow and how to keep it steady, one quarter of the fifty companies on this year’s spend their nights worrying about people associated with their business.

This article continues our series on the keys to business success. In part 1 we considered the first 5 keys. Now we consider the next 5.
Once you have read this article, click here to read more business success advice from forbes.com.
6. Make decisions promptly
Successful entrepreneurs and managers are action orientated. Whenever a business opportunity comes along they utilize it promptly making even more revenue as well as expanding their company. One of the significant elements that can undermine your business is neglecting to do something about it or maybe taking too long to act.

Because business success isn't as easy and simple as a lot of people think it is, we have provided several noteworthy suggestions to consider before taking this huge step.
On top of these suggestions the business owner needs to be aware that owning & operating a business requires a lot of hard work, sacrifice, and also a long period of time. Also the business owner is expected to be smart, ingenious and open minded to new ideas.

A home based business is operated under either of these two circumstances:
One, at home; that is, most of the business' work is carried out at home. An example is a dressmaker who does all the work at home with clients coming to pick their fittings there.
The other circumstance is when the business is carried out from home. This kind of business does not rent or own any premises other than the owner's home.
Accounting for a home based business
Accounting helps the business owner to keep track of the business and plan on how to improve its performance.

Every business, even small and home businesses need a good website. These days, with new technology such as WordPress and other content management systems, a website is cost effective and easy to create. There is no excuse for not having a good home business website.
Here are 3 prime reasons you need a great website:
Access a much wider market than your home business normally could
A good website is working for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and transactions can take place round the clock with visitors from around the world.

As promised and following on from my previous post, below are a few marketing ideas for a small business.
In this article we are going to focus on how to bring your business name and product to the attention of your target audience.
Content marketing
Another effective way to market your business and attract more customers is by generating content that is of a high quality standard and relevant to your audience. This type of marketing if well executed can turn out to be a valuable tool to your marketing game plan.

The biggest challenge entrepreneurs and business owners encounter is marketing a small business effectively. There are thousands of marketing techniques to choose from and finding the ideal approach for your small business can seem like a daunting task. It even gets more challenging with the limited budget small businesses have to work with.
Below are some strategies that can help bring your business to its peak.
Look at blogging in a different perspective
Blogging is a powerful tool for marketing your business.

Accounting refers to the measurement, communication and processing of monetary information in relation to economic entities such as businesses. Many accounting experts simply refer to it as business language.
Accounting practitioners are referred to as accountants and, as you can read below, it is important to ensure your accountant has the right experience and credentials.
Accounting is divided into a number of fields, some of which include:
Financial accounting
Management accounting
Tax accounting and
Auditing among others.

Image courtesy of arztsamui / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Starting a business from home can be a fantastic way to generate some money especially when you have time available that would otherwise be spent unproductively.
When the bills start piling up and you just can’t seem to make ends meet you might think initially about supplementing your income by starting a home business that might even end up becoming such a success that you never think of changing.

Welcome to our blog.
Why Ginger Knits? Well, I love Ginger Meggs and I like knitting. In fact, because business is another passion of mine I would like nothing better than to have a business focused on knitting clothing for children like Ginger Meggs.
(Ginger Meggs is a cartoon series started way back in 1920 about a red-haired young mischief-maker who lives in an inner suburban working-class household. It has been a long running comic series in Australia and was also made into a film in the 1980s.)
That’s probably never going to happen but in the blog I plan to spin a few yarns about business and hopefully provide a few pearls of wisdom along the way.